FAR-RIGHT activists who protested at the site of a forthcoming Islamic prayer centre have been condemned.

Members of Patriotic Alternative have been told they are not welcome in the area after they distributed leaflets in Barrow, Dalton and Ulverston.

They were also pictured raising a banner opposing immigration at the site of the prayer centre in Dalton, which is due to be built.

The far-right group is led by Mark Collett, who appeared on a Channel 4 documentary entitled Young, Nazi and Proud and wrote a book in which he described Hitler's Nuremberg rallies as 'something that one would have been proud to be a part of'.

The group was linked to a Swastika being drawn on Barrow's Cenotaph last year, although activists have denied involvement.

Members of the group were pictured posting leaflets through the doors of homes in Barrow, Walney and Ulverston.

They claimed to have delivered nearly 1,800 leaflets on 'demographic awareness'.

Furness MP Simon Fell led criticism of the group.

He said: "At a time when hundreds of local people have reached out to ask how they can help with the Ukraine crisis and house families in need, PA’s message is callous, mean-spirited and very much against the mood of the good people of Furness."

Paul Jenkins, an organiser from the south Cumbria branch of Unite Against Facism, said: "The people of Furness will not be divided by racism or by fascists.

"We stand united - Muslim, Jewish, Black, white and Asian, all of us, together

"Immigration is not to blame for our problems.

"PA supporters vandalising Barrow Cenotaph with a swastika is an insult to the people who gave their lives fighting fascism

"Furness is a welcoming community which has a long tradition of rejecting the far right."

The group also drew criticism from anti-racism campaigners in Cumbria when it held its annual conference at a hotel in Levens earlier this year.

The South Lakes Islamic Centre at Dalton would function as both a place of worship and a 'community outreach facility' and would boast a roof garden 'for relaxation and reflection'.

It is to be built on an area of land of around 1,000 sq metres in size at Crooklands Brow, Ulverston Road.

Outline planning permission for the site was granted in March 2020.